CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 106, September 2025
1. Introduction
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade XI Jinping as the core has attached great importance to cultural construction. A series of major strategic deployments have been made successively, and the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind and a "world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and clean and beautiful environment" has been proposed. According to Article 22 of the Public Library Law of the People's Republic of China, the National Library of China (NLC) undertakes the function of "international communication." With the further implementation of the strategy of building a cultural power, the further development of China's economy and society, and the further deepening of globalization, new and higher requirements have been put forward for the NLC to make greater contributions in overseas cultural communication and mutual learning among civilizations. In this context, this paper will focus on analyzing the various transitions of the all-media overseas cultural communication of the NLC in the 5G era.
1.1 Research significance
The NLC is an important institution for the preservation, conservation and inheritance of culture and civilization. In the field of overseas cultural communication, it undertakes the important functions of "implementing relevant national foreign cultural agreements, promoting the dissemination and exchange of Chinese culture overseas, participating in the activities of relevant international organizations, and carrying out exchanges and cooperation with the library communities of various countries," playing an active role in international library cooperation, resource co-construction and sharing, and cultural exchanges.
1.2 Research concept and scope
The "overseas cultural communication" mentioned in this paper mainly focuses on the following aspects:
Implementing relevant national foreign cultural agreements, such as the construction of regional library alliances and overseas cultural center libraries; participating in and speaking in the affairs of international organizations in the library field, such as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the Conference of Directors of National Libraries in Asia and Oceania (CDNLAO); investigating overseas Chinese language resources and promoting international resource co-construction and sharing, such as participating in international cooperation on the preservation, conservation, dissemination and utilization of ancient books; conducting bilateral and multilateral business exchanges and cooperation; holding international conferences and overseas exchange exhibitions; and carrying out talent training, exchanges, and personnel visits in cooperation with other countries or regions.
1.3 Research objectives
Carry out in-depth study on the internal needs and external environment of overseas cultural communication, aiming to build an international large-scale and strong library that matches the image and status of a cultural power, so as to give full play to its role in cultural communication. Sort out the existing theoretical research results of overseas cultural communication, and take the NLC as an example to analyze popular research topics, representative viewpoints, and main suggestions on this basis. Understand the external environment of policies, economy, culture, and science and technology faced by the library industry, and analyze its impact on overseas cultural communication.
2. Concepts
2.1 All-media cultural communication
Currently, a new round of scientific and technological revolution represented by modern technologies such as 5G networks, AI, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and blockchain is booming. A large number of "usable" and "easy-to-use" smart products have emerged, which have a profound impact on social production and lifestyle. Libraries face the need to deepen the revelation of knowledge content and expand the breadth of content correlation. In this context, some libraries have attempted to apply intelligent devices to their business, such as virtual guide, VR/AR new reading experiences, big data analysis, AI and so on, and have made positive progress in the in-depth mining of knowledge content and cultural communication. The communication scientist Lippmann believed that "the established routines, popular models, and established evaluation standards in society will interfere with how the human brain receives information."1 Therefore, these explorations and practices have also prompted the NLC to consider how to realize smart transformation in overseas cultural communication to improve its efficiency.
2.2 Smart development of libraries
The Cyber-Physic System (CPS) is a multi-dimensional complex system that integrates computing, network and physical environment. Through the integration and collaboration of computing, communication, and control technologies, it realizes the dynamic control, real-time perception and information services of the system. Through integrated design, the system becomes more reliable and efficient.2 The smart development of libraries refers to the integration of library physical infrastructure and information technology through the CPS to establish intelligent library infrastructure. It fully applies new-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, and VR to various service fields of the library, maximally develops, integrates and utilizes various information resources, flexibly constructs library service processes, and can provide users with timely, accurate and appropriate personalized and customized information services.3
2.3 Emotional interaction
"Communication studies believe that when the audience translates the meaning of the symbols 'compiled' by producers, they will go through three processes: selective attention - selective understanding - selective memory."4 "The psychological state of the audience when they come into contact with information, such as emotions, mentality, and specific needs"5 will all affect communication. Positive emotional resonance brought by pleasant emotional experience can increase the enthusiasm of communicators, while negative emotional responses brought by unpleasant emotional experience will make participants lose interest and motivation in communication.6 Facilitating emotional interaction between individuals across cultural contexts during cultural communication proves an effective approach to enhancing communicative efficacy.
3. Case Studies of Online Overseas Cultural Communication of the NLC
3.1 International DunHuang Project (IDP)
In order to promote the comprehensive utilization of Dunhuang treasures, the IDP project was launched at the end of the last century. The secretariat of IDP is set up in the British Library (BL), and the NLC is one participator of the project. With the launch of IDP website, users around the world can access the Dunhuang database online and search for high-quality images and catalog information of manuscripts and other materials for free. In this way, scholars and the public can obtain more and more materials related to the Silk Road online. The project holds regular seminars and working meetings on the topic of preservation and conservation, and has published numerous conference proceedings. The seminars are hosted by participating partners in the project, aiming to explore the best approaches for conserving, preserving and restoring collections. As of 2023, the IDP database had released approximately 595,000 high-definition color images, of which the NLC contributed more than 237,000. The Chinese database of IDP is the "Dunhuang Treasures Database. "It operates on a "constructing while serving" model, offering globally accessible resources for free public viewing and downloading, with continuously enhanced service efficiency. For urgently needed academic materials, the NLC provides prioritized digitalization services based on document availability. Professor Emeritus of the University of Cambridge, Qiushi Chair Professor at Zhejiang University, and renowned Dunhuang studies and manuscripts scholar Imre Galambos has emphasized in working meetings the tremendous value and impact of digitalization efforts.
3.2 China-UK Library Forum
In 2019, the Library Society of China, the NLC, and the BL jointly hosted the "China-UK Library Forum." From 2020 to 2023, 4 video conferences and training sessions were held consecutively, and more than 500 librarians from 11 public libraries in China and local public libraries in the UK participated, learning Chinese ancient book conservation techniques and related knowledge through videos.
3.3 China-France Portal Website
In 2015, the NLC and the National Library of France (BnF) jointly signed the "Cooperation Agreement between the National Library of China and the National Library of France (2015 - 2018)," which stipulated the joint development of a China-France portal website for cultural exchange. From 2016 to 2018, in accordance with the agreement, the NLC established the "China-France Exchanges" column on the Overseas Chinese Studies Resource Center website, displaying the content of the portal. In the meantime, the BnF established the "China-France Portal" column on the National Digital Library of France - Gallica, displaying relevant content for French readers to query information on Chinese ancient books, and showing Chinese culture to French readers.
4. Case Studies of Overseas Cultural Communication by Large Foreign Libraries
The Library of Congress (LoC) of the U.S. has actively transformed various types of its collections into digital resources and released them online through multiple channels for users worldwide. In December 2000, the U.S. Congress appropriated 100 million dollars for the "National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" (NDIIPP) led by the LoC, which also gave rise to the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education program, and the National Digital Stewardship Residency.
The French government once publicly announced that it would allocate a budget of nearly 750 million euros (approx. 1.1 billion US dollars) for the digitalization process of domestic libraries. The digital library of the BnF is named Gallica. It is one of the largest digital libraries accessible on the Internet, providing readers with 70,000 e-books, 80,000 images, and dozens of hours of audio-visual resources. It provides users with access to some of the collections of the BnF, covering numerous disciplines such as history, literature, natural science, philosophy, law, economics and politics. It also includes the special collections of the BnF: the Etienne-Louis Boullée image library, the Jean-Jacques Lequeu image library, the Eugene Atget library, and the Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville library. This database facilitates visitors to understand France from various historical stages and cultural perspectives.
5. Common Problems in Traditional Case Studies
Libraries focus primarily on immediate interests in the process of overseas cultural communication and lack in-depth exploration of audience needs. For example, many domestic libraries have cooperated with foreign libraries and institutions over literature digitalization in diverse ways. Some directly purchase digitalized results, some work jointly in literature and ancient book digitalization projects, and some negotiate to use digitalized results through off-site disaster recovery. However, there is little progress in the subsequent smart development of these cooperation results, and they fail to bring immersive experiences to meet the new demands of readers. Most of them still only allow users to search for book titles or authors, and view full-text image, such as the "Harvard-Yenching Library collection system for Chinese ancient rare books" and the "Catalog of Classical and Modern Chinese Books in the IOC (Institute of Oriental Culture)" of the NLC.
6. Solutions for All-media Cultural Communication
New attempts are made to solve this problem. The National Library of China (National Museum of Classic Books) participated in the production of the first domestic VR interactive documentary "The Journey of Ancient Books," which recreates the four major discoveries of ancient documents in the early 20th century, in cooperation with the First Historical Archives of China, Dunhuang Academy, Gansu Jiandu Museum, ByteDance, and PICO. This project centers on a VR interactive documentary, leveraging PICO's 6DoF interaction technology and Volcengine's video cloud capabilities in 3D reconstruction and video scanning to digitally restore the "Four Great Archival Discoveries of Early 20th Century China"—the Yinxu Oracle Bones, Juyan Han Dynasty Bamboo Slips, Dunhuang Manuscripts, and Ming-Qing Historical Archives. Through immersive technological recreation, users can experience the historical narratives preserved in these ancient texts, effectively bringing these cultural treasures "to life." Such attempts can be fully applied in overseas cultural communication, making cultural communication more stereoscopic, enhancing its immersiveness, and strengthening communication efficacy.
7. Conclusion
At present, China's librarianship has entered a new stage of accelerating transformation from digitalization to smartness. In March 2021, the Outline of the 14th Five - Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 passed by the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress clearly requires the active development of smart libraries,7 aiming to achieve the comprehensive smart transformation and upgrading of the business, management and services of the NLC and public libraries at all levels. Therefore, smart virtual international cultural communication is bound to become the future direction of cultural exchanges.
This paper examines case studies of cultural communication to analyze the necessity, feasibility and development trends of smart cultural communication. It identifies two key influencing factors—technical means and emotional interaction—while proposing corresponding strategies. With the successful smart transformation of libraries, it is anticipated that smart cultural communication will ultimately be achieved.
[1] ZHANG Guoliang. Principles of Communication (2nd Edition) [M]. Fudan University Press, 2019: 208.
[2] HU Qun. "An Intelligent Library Network Based on CPS." Library Theory and Practice [J]. 2013(6).
[3] PAN Hongjun, LIU Bo. "The Enlightenment of the Industry 4.0 Strategy on the Construction and Services of Smart Libraries. "Library Research and Work [J]. 2018(2).
[4] ZHANG Guoliang. Principles of Communication (2nd Edition) [M]. Fudan University Press, 2019: 209.
[5] ZHANG Guoliang. Principles of Communication (2nd Edition) [M]. Fudan University Press, 2019: 208.
[6] REN Ruixian, ZHANG Jinghuan. "Emotional Communication in the Network Environment." China Distance Education [J]. 2004(5).
[7] Outline of the 14th Five - Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035[EB/OL]http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-03/13/content_5592681.htm?ivk_sa=1024320u
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